June-July 2022 Fossicking Trip: 18) (Second) Last Fossick, Seadown Beach, Kakanui

Seadown Beach, Kakanui, southern end, this morning.

Powerful waves, tumbling the stones.

At the end of my morning’s fossick, the waves ahead were just about reaching the cliff at the back of the beach. There was more room on the section I walked back on.

Today (Monday 11 July) is most likely my final fossicking day this trip as I am on my way north and the weather will get very stormy from tomorrow [though it turned out I was able to get one more fossick in on Wednesday at Ward Beach]. At 9.30 am this morning, with the temperature at minus one degree, I arrived at Seadown Beach, Kakanui. It was sunny and there was no wind so it was comfortable on the beach wearing my big coast, a scarf and woolen hat. I spent just under 3 hours there, leaving when it was seven degrees. I returned at 3.30 pm, after high tide, for a further hour – the temperature was about five degrees on the beach, in growing shade as the sun lowered, but a stiff breeze meant it felt much colder than this morning. There was plenty of evidence of heavy swells and the erosive power of the waves.

This morning I walked as far as these rocks across the beach.

Looking back, the rocks in the foreground.

Another view back along the beach.

Bits of the surface of a closed section of Beach Road falling onto the beach.

Today was mainly a jasper and quartzite day. Here are some of the jaspers I found today, showing some of the variety available on this beach.

And the following photos show some of the variety of quartzites to be found on this beach.

Finally, some of the other stones I collected today.

Fossil sea-floor stone.

Another fossil sea-floor stone.

This small stones also has fossils in it.

This stone appears to have lots of tiny fossils in it too.

It has been suggested that this stone is argillite (silicified mudstone), with two different types of mud in it.

Some kind of veined quartz?

The little white dots are not loose sand on the surface of this stone but part of the stone.

Could be partly quartzite.

A shorter version of this Post first appeared in the Facebook Group “New Zealand Lapidary, Rocks, Minerals, Fossils”. The last Post in the Series is here. The first Post is here. A Series Index is here.

Author: tumblestoneblog

Retired Academic, male, living in the New Zealand countryside near Whanganui with his wife as well as Jasper the dog, Fluffy the cat, Dancer and Penny, the horses, and a shed half-full of stones. Email john.tumblestone@gmail.com. View all posts by tumblestoneblog